Waves Flashcards
What are waves?
A wave is a disturbance in a medium that carries energy.
What are the types of waves?
Longitudinal waves and transverse waves.
What are longitudinal waves?
Longitudinal waves are waves in which the vibration of particles takes place in the same direction as the wave.
What are transverse waves?
A wave that oscillates perpendicularly to the direction of the wave’s advance.
What is an image?
The point where the light rays coming from an object meet or appears to meet after reflection or refraction.
What are the types of images?
Real images and virtual images.
What are real images?
A real image occurs when light rays actually converge.
What are virtual images?
A virtual image occurs when light rays only appear to diverge.
What is frequency?
The number of waves that pass a certain point in one second.
What is amplitude?
Amplitude is the maximum displacement or distance moved by a point on a vibrating body or wave.
What is a wavelength?
The distance between successive crests of a wave.
What is a wavefront?
Single points for waves travelling in a one-dimensional medium.
What are convex lenses?
Lenses that bend light rays causing them to converge.
What are concave lenses?
Lenses that bend light rays away from each other causing them to diverge.
How do you calculate the refractive index (n)?
n=c/v
n= refractive index
c= speed of light in vacuum 3 x 10^8 m/s
v= speed of light in the medium
